- Calle Jarnkrok says Craig Berube sat him last season while he was scoring
- The 34-year-old left the NHL after 13 seasons and signed a three-year deal with Brynas
- Read below for what Jarnkrok said about his meeting with Brad Treliving
Calle Jarnkrok did not leave Toronto feeling good about how it ended.
Days after signing a three-year contract with Brynas IF, the 34-year-old forward sat down with hockeysverige.se and was asked how the last two years of his NHL career went. He pointed at Craig Berube.
“Two years ago I couldn’t play at all. But last year I came in and felt in really good shape, I scored goals, and then he (Craig Berube, coach) put me in the stands. It was a little weird.”
He was not exaggerating the start. Jarnkrok scored three goals in Toronto’s first three games and four in his first nine, then finished the year with six goals and two assists in 56 games.
Asked whether the benching caught him off guard, Jarnkrok did not soften it.
“At the time, I was very surprised. I mean, I understand that if I don’t get to play when I’m scoring in every game like I was at the start, then it’s going to be tough.”
The follow-up question was whether he thought it was unfair.
“The GM and the coach make the decisions, but it became an uphill battle. I was playing well but wasn’t getting to play. At that point, it was tough to motivate yourself and keep going. But it was a lot of fun playing in Toronto, even though the final year wasn’t that enjoyable.”
Rumors that Jarnkrok already had a handshake deal with Brynas floated around during the season, and his agent shot them down publicly. They still landed him in the general manager’s office.
“I had to have a meeting with the general manager (Brad Treliving), who had heard that I was going to leave. He brought me in and asked if I was moving back home. After that, everything was fine. But when I woke up, I’d received something like 100 text messages, and then I realized something had happened.”
Neither man is around anymore. Toronto fired Treliving on March 30 and Berube on May 13, with John Chayka hired in between and 35 names wiped off the staff directory since.
Andre Leal of The Hockey News pulled out the same line:
Jarnkrok finished his NHL run with 316 points in 774 games across stops in Nashville, Seattle, Calgary and Toronto. He said he knew a decent offer was never coming this summer, so the choice was not much of a shock, and he only locked in the move home a few days before Brynas announced it.
One thing does change in Gavle. Jarnkrok wore 19 in the NHL, but injured Nicklas Backstrom still holds that number at Brynas, so he takes nine instead.
He skated with his new teammates for the first time Tuesday and said he is available whenever head coach Niklas Gallstedt wants him in.
